So I’m seeing yet another Alliance Defense Fund sob story fly across my Google News page this morning…

Student sues L.A. City College district over gay-marriage speech

A classroom dispute at Los Angeles City College in the emotional aftermath of Proposition 8 has given rise to a lawsuit testing the balance between 1st Amendment rights and school codes on offensive speech.

Student Jonathan Lopez says his professor called him a "fascist bastard" and refused to let him finish his speech against same-sex marriage during a public speaking class last November, weeks after California voters approved the ban on such unions.

When Lopez tried to find out his mark for the speech, the professor, John Matteson, allegedly told him to "ask God what your grade is," the suit says.

Whenever I see a story like this one pop up I scan down the article for the words "Alliance Defense Fund" and I am seldom dissapointed.  That’s Pat Robertson’s ACLU evil mirror and it exists, not so much to defend the rights of Christians as to inflame religious passions in the mob toward secular government.  Whenever you see the Alliance Defense Fund in a news story, the first thing you have to assume is that most of what you are reading is Alliance Defense Fund spin, because they’re very good at finding reporters who are too lazy to fact check them.

This story is a case in point.  Your first reaction may be to question the wisdom of calling a student a fascist bastard in class.  Certainly telling a student to ask God what their grade is was way out of line.  Perhaps you didn’t notice this little tidbit in the L.A. Times story…

The Los Angeles Community College District’s offices were closed Friday for the Presidents Day holiday, and the general counsel, Camille A. Goulet, could not be reached. But in a letter to Alliance, the district said it deemed Lopez’s complaint "extremely serious in nature" and had launched a private disciplinary process.

The Alliance Defense Fund is a master at this.  They tossed this story out on a weekend, when nobody from the school district would be available for immediate comment.  That way, they get to spin the story the entire weekend and through Monday, the holiday, without fear of anyone hearing both sides of the story.

But in a letter to Alliance, the district said it deemed Lopez’s complaint "extremely serious in nature" and had launched a private disciplinary process.

In the letter, Dean Allison Jones also said that two students had been "deeply offended" by Lopez’s address, one of whom stated that "this student should have to pay some price for preaching hate in the classroom."

We are only getting the ADL’s spin on this story…but even in that spin there is a germ of something not-quite-right.  It wasn’t just the professor, but at least two students in the class who were offended enough by the speech to register complaints.

But, you say, even so, the ADL’s side of it is serious enough.  Professors shouldn’t be calling students fascists.  In class.  Other students should be told to respect the sincerely held religious beliefs of their peers, no matter how offensive those beliefs may seem to them.  But notice the one thing you aren’t hearing from the ADL, or in fact, any of the other news sources: the speech the student gave.

It isn’t there.  Not in the L.A. Times.  Not in the San Jose Mercury News.  Not in the ADL press release.  Not even in the right wing loony bin that is Town Hall even, where you would expect to find nothing but hosannas for outright Christainist Fascism.   The closest you get to the actual content of the speech in Town Hall, is this:

In November, Jonathan Lopez attempted to give his informative speech on God and the ways he has seen God act miraculously in his life and in the lives of others. In the middle of that speech, Lopez spoke of God and morality and read the dictionary definition of marriage. He also read two verses from the Bible.

But before Lopez was finished with his speech, Professor Matteson interrupted him. After calling Lopez a “fascist bastard” in front of other students, Matteson invited students to leave the class if they had been offended. When no one left, the professor dismissed the entire class.

But in fact even the ADL conceeds that two students were offended enough to register their complaints.  But look at that carefully.  In the middle of that speech, Lopez spoke of God and morality and read the dictionary definition of marriage. He also read two verses from the Bible.  Would one of those verses have been this one…perchance…?

If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.

We don’t know.  All we know at this point, is that something was said during that class that shocked and outraged enough of the people who heard it that…well…what exactly?  The suit doesn’t accuse the school of actually penalizing Lopez in any way, other then having his speech cut short and being ridiculed in front of the class.  Which I’m sure has never happened to any other college student in a public speaking class.  Oh yes, it accuses the the professor of making threats of retaliation…but no actual retaliation is in the ADL’s accusations.  When you look at this one critically, there doesn’t seem to be much of anything at all other then…well…a lot of empty speechifying.

So what is this all about?  Simple.  It’s about generating a news story about Christians being persecuted to inflame the mob…to keep it fired up for the ongoing culture war.  I strongly suspect that when we eventually find out what it was this lout actually said to his classmates it won’t seem such a clear cut act of religious persecution after all.

Of course…the reporters on the story could simply have done their damn jobs.  The obvious thing here is to dig up what Lopez actually said.  Nobody seems to have bothered doing that.  And the ADL and Town Hall would have their reasons one strongly suspects, for not telling.  Where are the goddamned journalists in this country?  They all retire or something?